Upper Peninsula

Tom McKee is having some hard conversations right now. 

“Do we eliminate our elementary school? That means we put our kids on a bus for two hours one way to get to the nearest school,” says the Superintendent of Whitefish Township School District.

Spanning 270 square miles, the remote district has just 53 students, McKee says. “Do we eliminate our high school? Same thing, putting our kids on the bus, two hours one way.” 

An image of a cougar was caught on a landowner’s trail camera in Gogebic County in the west side of the Upper Peninsula, on July 7.

The Environmental Protection Agency is currently seeking public comment on an application for the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) to set their own water quality standards. The KBIC is based out of L'Anse Township in the Upper Peninsula.

Another Native American tribe in the state has voted to legalize recreational marijuana, making them to second tribe in Michigan to do so.

The Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians approved of a resolution that mirrors the state’s recreational marijuana laws.

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration has given western Upper Peninsula counties a grant to rebuild flood-damaged roads.

A new lawsuit is seeking to compel the federal government to come up with a national plan to protect the gray wolf, including those in the Upper Peninsula. 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to try to remove endangered species protection from nearly all gray wolves in the lower 48 states next month.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources says a fatal neurological disease in deer has turned up for the first time in the Upper Peninsula.

The 4-year old doe was discovered about four miles from the Wisconsin border in Dickinson County.

The federal government has again rejected Michigan’s request for federal assistance to Upper Peninsula residents hit hard by flooding in June.

Flooding in the Upper Peninsula earlier this month prompted Governor Rick Snyder to declare a second state of disaster for Houghton County.

The declaration will open up additional resources and money for areas that were still recovering from severe flooding in June.

That flooding washed away large chunks of concrete and asphalt, damaged homes, and killed a 12-year-old boy.

Several roads that had already been repaired were damaged again this month.

The remains of a Michigan man who was killed in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor have been buried in the Upper Peninsula.

Lowell Valley was 19 years old and in Navy when the USS Oklahoma was attacked. Radio station WDBC says Valley's remains were identified through DNA tests.

Valley's younger brother, Bob Valley, says he received a call from the Navy in January.

A funeral Mass was held Saturday at Holy Family Catholic Church in Ontonagon, followed by burial with full honors at the church cemetery.

The state is asking President Trump to declare three Upper Peninsula counties hit by flash flooding last month disaster areas.

Lt. Governor Brian Calley wants the federal designation extended to Houghton, Gogebic, and Menominee counties. Those counties were hit by record-breaking rainfall on June 17th, flooding homes, buckling roads, and causing one death.

Storms moving across the Upper Peninsula washed out several roads in the Houghton and Hancock areas and created dozens of sinkholes across the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Wildlife biologists are worried about how prolonged wintry weather will affect deer in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

State Department of Natural Resources supervisor Terry Minzey says things looked good for the U.P. deer herd a month ago, but the situation has deteriorated as winter has held on.

Deer fitted with radio collars for DNR studies have suffered a 13.5 percent mortality rate so far this winter, with 11 percent of adult female deer dying.

Wildlife specialists will soon be in the woods in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, tracking wolves. 

The Department of Natural Resources last conducted a wolf census in 2016, when it estimated more than 600 wolves prowled in the U.P.

The DNR's Kevin Swanson says they don't know what to expect. But he says conditions may be right for an increase in the wolf population. 

"We have a lot more deer on the landscape now," says Swanson. 

But Swanson says there are other factors, like canine distemper, that could negatively affect the wolf population. 

Hundreds of nurses are walking a picket line outside the largest hospital in the Upper Peninsula.

Members of the Michigan Nurses Association launched a 48-hour strike against U.P. Health System Marquette on Thursday. The nurses have been working without a contract since May.

Scott Balko is the president of the local nurses’ union. He says staffing issues have become an increasing problem since an out-of-state hospital company acquired three local hospitals in the U.P. in past few years.

The moose population in the western Upper Peninsula appears to be rebounding after taking a dip a few years ago.

Moose were reintroduced into the western U.P. in the 1980s. Their range there covers about 1,400 square miles in parts of Marquette, Baraga, and Iron Counties. 

The moose population in the area grew to 451 in 2013 before dropping down to 285 in 2015.

But Michigan Department of Natural Resources spokesman John Pepin says the just completed aerial survey counted 378 moose.